Topoi Maps

Visualised, the spatial/narrative structures of the two works are surprisingly similar for the topoi map. The Magician’s Nephew consists of three looping ‘petals’ off the central space of 'The Wood Between the Worlds'. These correspond to London/England; Charn (the decaying home world of the White Witch); and the new-born world of Narnia. The petals are centred on the Wood Between the Worlds, a liminal space which serves as the gateway between the three dimensions, and (in conjunction with some magic rings) is the means by which the novel’s protagonists, Polly and Diggory, visit them.  

As a journey narrative, away from land and into the unknown ocean, one might expect the topological structure of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader to be linear. However, on visualisation, a similar flower-like structure emerges, centred on the ship itself and its component spaces. In rendering the ship as static, its chronotopic function (analogous if not identical to the Wood space in The Magician’s Nephew) is made visible. Both function as the interstice which makes the episodes which compose the body of the novel possible.